All posts tagged Camilla Lundsten

A Nordic fashion battle is brewing after a Swedish designer accused retail powerhouse H&M of plagiarizing and profiting from one of her creations. She won an apology from the company after taking to Instagram and then emailing the CEO.

Camilla Lundsten, creator of a children’s book series about Littlephant, a popcorn-loving, bike-cruising red elephant, last year collaborated with a smaller Swedish retailer – Lindex – to create a clothing collection based on her characters. Last week, Ms. Lundsten spotted a girl’s ensemble sold by H&M that bore more than a passing resemblance to one of her Littlephant garments.

“On Friday I went into H&M’s online store and discovered a dress with a rabbit peeking out of the pocket with accompanying harlequin tights,” Lundsten said in an interview nearly a week after her discovery. “I looked at H&M online stores in other countries and saw the same collection.”

She then went to work trying to get the H&M collection pulled from the racks.

This is the second time over the past six months big Nordic fashion names have drawn copycat allegations.

In May, Finland’s iconic Marimekko design house and fashion retailer was taken to task after one of its newer designs too closely resembled work done by a Ukrainian artist in the 1960s.

Littlephant’s Lundsten said she has managed to succeed in getting H&M to pull the clothing that she says closely mirrors her own. But it took some work. Read More »

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.